Cats Cradle Essays - Kurt Vonnegut, Nonce Words, Bokononism

Cat's Cradle Cat's Cradle is, "Vonnegut's most highly praised novels. Filled with humor and unforgettable characters, this apocalyptic story tells of Earth's ultimate end, and presents a vision of the future that is both darkly fantastic and funny, as Vonnegut weaves a satirical commentary on modern man and his madness" (Barnes and Noble n.pag). In Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut uses satire as a vehicle for threatened self-destruction when he designs the government of San Lorenzo. In addition, the Bokonists practice of Boko-maru, and if the world is going to end in total self destruction and ruin, then people will die, no matter how good people are and what religion people believe. An example of satire that Kurt Vonnegut uses is when he designs the government of San Lorenzo. San Lorenzo is a small island somewhere in the Caribbean. The people in San Lorenzo are doomed to failure no matter what leader they have, and they have always been this way. San Lorenzo, in the novel, is pictured as one of the most unsuccessful and useless places on earth. The people there are very poor, do not have much to eat, and do not have any motivation left at all, "Johnson and McCabe had failed to raise the people from the misery and muck" (Achebe 133). Thus, that is why they do not care anymore who there leader is going to be, because they know that they are going to fail anyway, "Everybody was bound to fail, for San Lorenzo was as unproductive as an equal area in the Sahara or the Polar Icecap" (Achebe 133). The way that the people are kept alive is by trickery by the government and the holy man Bokonon. The story of Bokonon and his religion begins with the dictator of San Lorenzo and Bokonon at first Shteyrenberg 2 being friends, but then they decided to govern San Lorenzo by themselves. Seeing that the people are hopeless and without direction, Bokonon invents his religion, "When Bokonon and McCabe took over this miserable country year ago...they through out the priests. And then Bokonon, cynically and playfully invented a new religion" (Achebe 172). But then McCabe outlaws it and makes practicing any religion other than Christianity punishable by the deadly Hook, "Anybody caught practicing Bokononsim in San Lorenzo, will die on the Hook" (Achebe 134). All the people on the island have become devout Bokonists, and the struggle between the government and the religion keeps them entertained, and therefore alive, "Well, when it became evident that no government or economic reform was going to make the people much less miserable, the religion became the one real instrument of hope. Truth was the enemy of the people, because the truth was so terrible, so Bokonon made it his business to provide the people with better and better lies" (Achebe 172). The hopeless, directionless people represent mankind as a whole and the government plot represents what Vonnegut sees as society's mindless, clear diversion from reality that keeps everyone interested in life. An example of satire as a vehicle of self-destruction in the story is the Bokonists practice of Boko-maru. Boko-maru is the Bokonists tradition of placing the naked soles of one's feet to another person's naked soles, "...Bokononists mingled their souls by pressing the bottoms of their feet together" (Achebe 135). This is the very silly and pointless part of the religion that seems to be based on nothing at all. Bokononism says that one cannot touch soles with another person without loving them, and therefore sole touching is a good thing since it promotes love. This is sarcastic because a Boko-maru Shteyrenberg 3 comes from a religion that accuses itself as a pack of lies, and yet has a feature that is strangely true. The crucial example of satire as a vehicle of self-destruction in the story is that no matter what religion people believe in, no matter what acts of goodness people perform, nothing in the end can save everything from total ruin and pointlessness. The destruction of the world by ice nine shows Vonnegut's tendency towards his negative view of the world. No matter what any of the characters wished for or did, the world was destroyed all the same by some incredibly stupid and pointless force called God, who guided the entire human race through its wasted and bloody history simply so one man could, "Climb to the top of Mount McCabe and lie down on my back...thumbing my nose at You Know Who" (Achebe 287). Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut is a satire on

Commemorating Black History Month essays

Commemorating Black History Month essays Commemorating Black History Month During the past, African Americans have suffered injustice and discrimination due to their race. Some of the most prominent figures during our history are DIana Ross, Sojourner Truth, Mary Mcleod Bethune, Alice Walker, Langston Hughes, and Martin Luther King. They have fought against prejudice and opened up doors for others. Some stirred the beginnings of freedom and equal rights for all. They were all very important figures in American History. They are a part of the people who formed this nation to be what it is today. I specifically chose people like Mary Mcleod Bethune, Alice Walker, And Langston Hughes because of their contribution to our society.Mary Mcleod Bethune Mary McLeod Bethune, born to former slaves a decade after the end of the Civil War, devoted her life to ensuring the right to education and freedom from discrimination for black Americans. Bethune believed that through education, blacks could begin to earn a living in a country that still opposed racial equality. She started her own school and continuously fought segration where she saw it. More than that she served presidents from Coolidge to Roosevelt as a Advisor of Minority Affairs. She succeeded politically as well as in her own community, she endlessly worked in what she believed in . Alice Walker and Langston Hughes are not only the best african American writers but they are the best writer this nation has produced. They have touched people spiritually and mentally through their writings. And also participated in Civil Righ ts movements of their time. They were one of the very few Black writer of their time and paved the way for others. Other eminent African American Figures figures in History are Diana Ross, Martin Luther King and Sojourner Truth. Diana Ross is one of the most successful African Americans and has contributed a great deal. She paved the way for other African Americans and women in the music industr...

Supply chain management in web technology Essay

Supply chain management in web technology - Essay Example In this research work, the theoretical aspects of the Supply Chain and how technology, specifically, the internet has helped in augmenting this system and in what way has the companies gained out of it. In order to execute this, measures are defined for targets by establishing key performance indexes which would be measured at the beginning of a technological implementation and measured again at the end of the technological implementation. This helped in establishing the gain out of technology. Technology helps in augmenting efficiency of supply chain management, particularly on the Global scale. However, SCM is not all technology but also an art. Careful work execution is as much important as technology for a successful SCM. 1. Study of the existing systems and the theory behind Supply Chain Management. This would involve going through the available literature in order to identify the various factors that make up the Supply Chain. Impact of every one of the factors is ascertained and the technology solution for every one of the factors is also identified, if available. Once these are identified, then the work in the case progresses with more clarity added to the nature of factors that influence the technology changes. Available literature is exhaustively collected for this purpose and the same is documented and referenced. 2. 2. Once the literature review is done, appropriate analysis is done to ascertain the impact of technology on supply chain. This would help in understanding the success of the technological innovations in this field. In addition to that, the effectiveness of such technological innovations and the extent to which they are trustable is also identified from the analysis. The analysis of the literature will also throw up other issues that have come up because of technological application on the supply chain. The advantages will also be discussed in short and the disadvantages along with issues that need to be countered or remain unsolved are also listed down. 3. An industry visit is done to identify the type of usage that exists in the industry in terms of supply chain. The practical issues that come up during the course of normal work and the methodology adopted by the industry's managers to counter these issues are also identified and taken in for consideration. One or two managers of the company are requested for an interview and then a set of qualitative questions are posed to them on the success of Supply chain management tools. The extent of success is then ascertained and points are allocated on a Likert Scale from 1 to 8. Based on this, another set of analysis is done and its closeness to the theoretical study is identified, if available. Secondly, during the course of the work, other targets listed are also met. 4. A final conclusion is drawn based on the literary review, the short survey that was taken from the company and its managers. Finally, the objective of the work, whether the technological application favours the supply chain and whether it has optimised work is done and identified. Literature Review Approach The methodology adopted for this literature review will be as follows: 1. Different products in the industry for Supply chain mana

Fossils Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Fossils - Essay Example Lastly, energy can be converted when nuclear reaction occurs – when subatomic particles that make up atoms nuclei rearranges. They may either combine (fission) or split apart (fusion) (D. Yogi Goswami, 2008). This paper discusses basic facts of fossil energy and compares it with other forms of energy. Fossil fuel covers a wide range of fuels used in many different ways and in different forms. Fossil fuels refer to fundamentally any carbon based substance used by human beings as a source of energy advantage. They possess their name of fossil fuel because they are usually formed from remains of dead organisms (plants and animals) fossils form when animals or plants dies and their remains get covered with earth sediment over time. As more layers begin to cover these remains, they start acting like a press. The pressure and heat over time change these organic remains to the hydrocarbons called fossil fuels (Snedden, 2006). There are three main forms of fossil fuels: natural gas, oil and coal. All three were formed hundreds millions years ago before the dinosaurs time. The age they got formed is referred to as the Carboniferous Period, part of Paleozoic Era. "Carboniferous" derive its name from carbon, which is the basic element in all fossil fuels. The Carboniferous Era occurred from around 360 to 286million years ago (Snedden, 2006). In that period, the land was concealed with swamps filled with big trees, ferns and other leafy plants. The water and all seas were occupied with algae – the green organism that forms on stagnant water (Snedden, 2006). Algae is in fact millions of small plants. In many countries, the most well recognized fossil fuel is coal. It used to be a source power since the onset of the industrial revolution. Nevertheless, its application as a source of power has changed over time. Initially, people used coal to

Graphic Design Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Graphic Design - Research Paper Example Although he was an excellent song writer and poet, William concentrated on the construction and decoration of buildings. Red house (William and Jane’s home) As seen in his works and character, William Morris ‘approach is more vibrant colorful and rich in aesthetics. He is big on color, textures of fabric. As a result, his work is more welcoming and pleasant to the eye as it is sophisticated. WALTER GROPIUS He was born in Berlin in 1883 and is remembered as a ground breaking architect and designer as well as the founder of the Bauhaus. Having discontinued his architecture studies in Munich, he went ahead and practiced as a freelance architect who had particular interest and taste in glass walls that seemed almost weightless. Evidently, his style in design did without historism, ornaments and the use of symbolic features. His emphasis was based mainly on the functionality of basic geometric bodies. A sample of his work includes the â€Å"Faguswerk† and the â€Å"Mu sterfabrik† done in the early 1911. ... This designer has always denied that it is in him to design instead; he says that his agenda is to establish the methodology of design COMPARISON AND CONTRAST Although the two designers emerged from different worlds, William was from England and Walter from Germany, the two had some similarities to them. Walter was more concerned with the fit of the final work and space thereby the symmetry and geometry of the design sand final product while William was concerned with colorful well manicured and aesthetically appealing designs. At the end of the day, both had the same goal, to provide satisfactory and unique products for their clients. William’s philosophy of ‘less is more ‘shows that he was more concerned with the look and the design of his work and the general appeal it would have at the end of its construction. On the other hand, Walter is more concerned, not with designing, but explaining and finding meaning in the methodology of the designs. His work is theref ore more mathematically calculated as is seen in his keenness to handiwork and the fit of planes and the close supervision of the production process from the beginning to the end. According to location of their work (Architectural) Water’s work does not require a lot of land for the sitting of his buildings as opposed to William whose intricate designs are flashier and require space for their luxury to be seen. 2. Using two images from each style (total of 4 images form any of our texts), describe how you would evaluate the importance of De Stijl and Constructivism on the development of modern design. Answer De Stijl is a Dutch word for Style. Walter The philosophy of his style was based on functionalism with a severe and doctrinaire insistence on the

The Use Of Ict In The Airline Industry Tourism Essay

The Use Of Ict In The Airline Industry Tourism Essay Abstract This essay throws light on the use of ICT in the airline industry and what impacts developments in ICT have made on the said industry. The essay highlights the role of ICTs in enhancing airlines capability to interact with customers, reducing the operational costs, increasing the convenience for making reservations, managing air traffic, administering the crew and airport staff, improving the passengers in-flight experience, maximizing airlines revenue by variable fares, improving security standards, promoting partnerships and alliances among airlines, integrating value added services. It has been argued that automation increases efficiency but human factor is yet very important in personifying the customer experience. Introduction to the Airline Industry An airline provides air transport services for passengers and/or freight. Commercial operations of airlines date back to early 1900s, however, evidence of increase in operations is found after World War I. Over the years, airline as an industry has grown tremendously. It has facilitated economic growth, world trade, foreign investment, tourism and has played a significant role in globalization of industries. Full-service airlines have a high level of fixed and operating costs in order to establish and maintain air services: labor, fuel, airplanes, engines, spares and parts, IT services and networks, airport equipment, airport handling services, sales distribution, catering, training,  aviation insurance etc. Keeping in view such high costs and complex nature of operations, it is essential for airline companies to take advantage of ICTs to carry out operations smoothly and optimize expenses. Use of ICT in the Airline Industry Technology is dramatically and profoundly changing the nature of services. Technology is also profoundly changing how services are delivered, and it is enabling both customers and employees to get and provide better, more efficient, customized services. These changes have significant implications for managing service operations as well as for predicting and managing consumer behavior. Impact of Developments of ICT on Operations of Airline Industry In the text below, major operations of the airline and airports have been discussed. It has been analyzed that how the developments in the ICT have impacted the processes of the said industry. The developments in the ICT have significantly influenced the way Airlines interact with customer, develop loyalty programmes and implement customer retention strategies. Few developments to enhance the passengers in-flight experience have also been made. Interaction with Customers The proliferation of internet and World Wide Web has made it enormously convenient for the organizations to interact with their customers. Internet has provided a very economical way of interacting with customers, has reduced distribution costs, and has increased the profit margin by direct selling. Internet has also served as a purveyor of information about travel. Carriers everywhere have embraced online ticket sales as a means of reducing distribution costs. Travelers now have the opportunity and convenience to compare price and service offerings of all airlines quickly and efficiently, and to act on those comparisons instantly with only a few keystrokes. McIvor et al. (2003), present analysis of four airline companies and their use of internet to provide innovative interaction and transactional mechanisms with customers. They state that internet has increased the expectations of customers for the services and service delivery. In fact, the internet has become essential to the strategic development of the airline companies. They further argue that the scope and boundaries of the airline industry have become less clear as a result of the adoption of internet technologies at the customer interface. The offering of a range of products and services is creating industry convergence. Exploitation of the internet at the customer interface has become a key catalyst in the transformation of the airline industry. In the past, airlines have been selling their product (i.e. an airline seat) through travel agents. The travel agents competitive position was based on exploiting the information insufficiency at the customer end. However, nowadays, the website of the Airline makes customer autonomous to decide on the fares, routes and various services associated. The internet enables airlines to build a direct and superior relationship with customers. In this era, the airlines site support complete automation of the booking process and limits the need for human intervention. Airlines are extensively investing and utilizing the Internet to further undermine the travel agents which has also resulted in improved process efficiency. Furthermore, removal of the travel agent layer has reduced transaction costs and has enhanced the relationship with customer through the provision of more detailed and up-to-date information. Customer Retention and Airline Loyalty Programmes The cost of developing a new customer is several times higher than the cost of keeping an existing customer. With the increasingly fierce market competition, companies would like to retain their existing customers as much as possible. Fan (2007), state that competition has changed gradually from price of products and services to grasping customers. Only those companies that can more precisely understand customers demands, more quickly respond to the changing needs and can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty can win the competition. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has become particularly important in this age. Data mining technology, as the founding base of CRM, can help the airlines to effectively capture valuable information about passengers from extensive information available in their databases, which is essential for making strategic marketing decisions. McIvor (2003), state that through sophisticated Information Systems available now, it has become possible to automatically inform staff about customer preferences such as aisle seats or in-flight entertainment. Previously, such information may have been collected but not used to enhance the needs of their most profitable customers. CRM and Data Mining allow companies to target groups effectively, and allocate marketing resources to best effect. As is shown in 80/20 rule, 80% of sales of a company come from 20% of its clients, it is essential to conduct customer segmentation and find those 20% of high-value customers. Zhang and Chen (2009), state that in order to better ensure continued profitability it is necessary to keep customer satisfied. Through a lot of accumulation of data on passenger satisfaction surveys, using data mining technology such as principal component analysis, factor analysis to identify the main influencing factors of passenger satisfaction, as well as the relative importance of various factors can help airlines make improvements, enhance the overall customer service levels and the competitiveness of companies. McIvor et al. (2003), further state that Airline loyalty programmes have been the major means of keeping customers to a particular airline. Airline loyalty programmes provide significant value to customers. Airlines are now associating their Loyalty Programmes with the complementary products and services such as car rentals and hotel accommodations. In fact, the airlines are attempting to create a one-stop shopping experience for the customer with all the required travel products and services available on-line. With the provision of these complementary services, airlines have enhanced value of the core service. It is, therefore, very important to take full advantage of the data mining and other modern information technology to identify the valuable information about the customers buying pattern and choices and address them in timely fashion to provide more personalized service which will ultimately improve passenger satisfaction and loyalty. Operations and Business Intelligence Negash and Gray (2008), discuss the case of Continental Airlines. They state it as the seventh largest airline in the world with 2300 daily flights to over 200 destinations. An airline, as big as this, and requiring decisions about each take-off and landing, each passengers fare, ground operations, detecting fraud, security and customer relations, need for a ICT based intelligent business model was indispensable. In 1998 they implemented a real-time data warehouse and began their climb to being a top airline. For example, they integrated customer information, finance, flight information, seat inventory, and security to improve revenue. The warehouse data also allowed them to spot travel agent fraud. They moved forward from there to real-time applications. For example, they began using optimization techniques to design fares based on current demand; they gave their gate agents and flight attendants details on customer experiences on previous flight segments and flights; if a connecting flight was late, they used dashboard displays so their high-value customers would be helped in making connections for themselves and for their baggage. To make all this work, Continental built an 8 terabyte real-time data warehouse (called an operational data store or ODS) that coordinated 25 internal and two external operational systems. These systems include both Web and desktop BI. In-flight Entertainment The advancement in technology has enabled Airlines to enhance the passengers travelling experience. Back in early 1920s, Aeromarine Airways pioneered in the digital entertainment of passengers by showing a movie during the flight. Since then, digital technologies have evolved from single shared screen to individual screens offering variety of infotainment stuff such as movies, games, news, flight information, weather information etc. Furthermore, as reported by Nelson (2010), in-flight WiFi internet access was made available to passenger in 2008 by American Airlines after the test in 2005. The capability of providing internet facility during the flight has phenomenal impacts and lets the passenger stay in touch with the world even on the go. Security Future As discussed in essay, opportunity for in-flight WiFi access still exists. Few major airlines, like American Airlines, have already provided this facility on certain airlines. Provision of the internet and staying in touch during the longer hours travel will have considerable implications and will be great source of providing competitive edge. Furthermore, reported by HotHardware, BlueBox Avionics is aiming to integrate iPad into their next in-flight entertainment solution. Whether or not they integrate the iPad to the back of the passengers seat, distributing the iPad among the passengers during a long flight will certainly enhance the passengers experience. iPad certainly provides a much richer entertainment as compared to currently installed display screens. Conclusion The evidence presented in this article has illustrated how the Internet represents a powerful technology for commerce and communication between customers and airline companies. The Internet clearly enables the customer to move from being a passive participant to that of being proactive and more sophisticated in their relationship with airlines.

Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown - Moral and Philosophical Considerations :: Free Essays on Young Goodman Brown

Young Goodman Brown: Moral and Philosophical Considerations The terror and suspense in the Hawthorne story function as integral parts of the allegory that defines the story's theme. In allegory (a narrative containing a meaning beneath the surface one), there is usually a one-to-one relationship; that is, one idea or object in the narrative stands for only one idea or object allegorically. A story from the Old Testament illustrates this. The pharaoh of Egypt dreamed that seven fat cows were devoured by seven lean cows. Joseph interpreted this dream as meaning that seven years of plenty (good crops) would be followed by seven years of famine. "Young Goodman Brown" clearly functions on this level of allegory (while at times becoming richly symbolic). Brown is not just one Salem citizen of the late seventeenth century, but rather seems to typify mankind, to be in a sense Everyman, in that what he does and the reason he does it appear very familiar to most people, based on their knowledge of others and on honest appraisal of their own behavior. For example, Goodman Brown, like most people, wants to experience evil, not perpetually, of course, for he is by and large a decent chap, a respectably married man, a member of a church, but he desires to "taste the forbidden fruit" ("have one last fling") before settling down to the business of being a solid citizen and attaining "the good life." He feels that he can do this because he means to retain his religious faith, personified in his wife, who, to reinforce the allegory, is even named Faith. But in order to encounter evil, he must part with his Faith at least temporarily, something he is either willing or compelled to do. It is here that he makes his fatal mistake, for evil turns out to be not some abstraction nor something that can be played with for a while and then put down, but the very pillars of Goodman Brown's worldhis ancestors, his earthly rulers, his spiritual overseers, and finally his Faith. In short, so overpowering is the fact and the universality of evil in the world that Goodman Brown comes to doubt the existence of any good. By looking upon the very face of evil, he is transformed into a cynic and a misanthrope whose "dying hour was gloom." Thomas E. Connolly, in "Hawthorne's 'Young Goodman Brown': An Attack on Puritanic Calvinism" (American Literature, 28 [November 1956], 370-375), has remarked that Goodman Brown has not lost his faith; he has found it.